Gulls Can’t Figure Out Henderson, Drop Fourth Straight
Oct 29, 2023By Nick Aguilera/SanDiegoGulls.com
The San Diego Gulls couldn’t hold off a late charge from the Henderson Silver Knights and lost their fourth game in a row, a 4-2 loss at The Dollar Loan Center Sunday afternoon.
San Diego scored twice in the first period but didn’t find the back of the net again. Calle Clang was solid in net despite the loss, as he tied his AHL career high in saves, stopping 35-of-38 shots.
"I thought we got off to a pretty good start in the first period," head coach Matt McIlvane said. "There was a lot to feel good about in our first period game. Certainly not a perfect one, but there was a lot of good energy. Then we get into the second; I felt like we were hanging on for moments of that. And then, you know, in the third, I think this is our fourth game in a row now that we go into the third period tied and end up losing the game."
"We're learning how to win as a team right now. We've figured out a good process to get us to that point. The learning is to be able to stick with it all the way through."
Drew Helleson once again got his first goal of the season against the Silver Knights, putting one past Jesper Vikman at 6:17 in the first period to put the Gulls on top early. Helleson netted his first career AHL goal last season on Nov. 8 against Henderson.
"I think it was Trev (Gulls defenseman Trevor Carrick) that drove wide and it took a funny bounce right to me and luckily got it through and it found a way," Helleson said. "Not the prettiest one, but you know, we'll take it."
Andrew Agozzino picked up the 300th assist of his 13-year AHL career with the primary helper. The veteran has 220-300=520 points in 670 career AHL games with San Diego, San Jose, Belleville, Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Colorado, San Antonio, Chicago and Lake Erie.
Henderson didn’t waste a lot of time getting the goal back. Alex Swetlikoff scored a little over two minutes later.
The Gulls’ power play unit then caught Henderson sleeping and unleashed a flurry of shots up close on Vikman before Glenn Gawdin deposited his second goal in as many games and third of the season. The goal snapped a 0-for-12 power play streak for the Gulls spanning three games. Blake McLaughlin notched his first career AHL assist on the play.
"Probably not the way you draw up a power-play goal, coming out of the box with a four-man rush," McIlvane said. "You don't necessarily control how many times the (officials) hand goes in the air, and if it's one-and-a-half, you want to try and get on the board. Good on the guys for doing that."
The Gulls nearly got their third goal of the afternoon eight minutes into the second, but instead Henderson’s Grigori Denisenko broke free on the counterattack and beat Clang glove side to tie the game at two.
Both offenses went stagnant until 12:35 in the third period, when Henderson’s Brendan Brisson scored on the power play to put the Silver Knights on top. Denisenko scored an empty netter with 14 seconds to play, his second goal of the game, to seal the Gulls’ fate.
"It's just little details," Helleson said. "There's little things you can do. Our puck management in the first and even the second was pretty good. Once we get to the third, we kind of tighten up a bit and seem to make a bunch of mistakes that are uncharacteristic.
"We got a young group and I think we'll learn from it. Hopefully here in Charlotte next week, we'll be pretty good."
Pavol Regenda stretched his team lead in points with his second assist of the season, giving him 5-2=7 points.
Trevor Carrick picked up an assist, his fifth of the campaign, and now sits two points shy of 300 in his AHL career.
San Diego will travel to Charlotte and continue their four-game road trip on Friday, Nov. 3 against the Checkers (4 p.m. PT), their first trip to North Carolina since the 2015-16 season.